A new game plan for C players

It's a big driver of business success, but one that executives are loath to talk about: upgrading the talent pool by weeding out "C" players from management. These aren't the incompetent or unethical managers whom organizations dismiss without a backward glance; C performers deliver results that are acceptable--barely--but they fail to innovate or to inspire the people they lead. The authors of The War for Talent have studied what it takes to upgrade an organization's talent pool. In this article, they explore the hidden costs of tolerating under-performance and acknowledge the reasons why executives may shy away from dealing decisively with C players. They recommend that organizations take an "iron hand in a velvet glove" approach to managing subpar performers. That is, companies should establish rigorous, disciplined processes for assessing and dealing with low-performing managers but still treat them with respect. The authors outline three ironhanded steps. First, executives must identify C players by evaluating their talents and distributing employee performances along an assessment curve. Second, executives must agree on explicit action plans that articulate the improvements or changes that C performers must achieve within six to 12 months. And third, executives should hold managers accountable for carrying out the action plans. Without such discipline, procrastination, rationalization, and inaction will prevail. The authors also emphasize the need for the "velvet glove." Executives must ensure that low performers are treated with dignity, so they should offer candid feedback, instructive coaching, and generous severance packages and outplacement support. The authors' approach isn't about being tough on people; it's about being relentlessly focused on performance.     

Capital market effects of media synthesis and dissemination: evidence from robo-journalism

In 2014, the Associated Press (AP) began using algorithms to write articles about firms’ earnings announcements. These “robo-journalism” articles synthesize information from firms’ press releases, analyst reports, and stock performance and are widely disseminated by major news outlets a few hours after the earnings release. The articles are available for thousands of firms on a quarterly basis, many of which previously received little or no media attention. We use AP’s staggered implementation of robo-journalism to examine the effects of media synthesis and dissemination, in a setting where the articles are devoid of private information and are largely exogenous to the firm’s earnings news and disclosure choices. We find compelling evidence that automated articles increase firms’ trading volume and liquidity. The effects are most likely driven by retail traders. We find no evidence that the articles improve or impede the speed of price discovery. Our study provides novel evidence on the impact of pure synthesis and dissemination of public information in capital markets and initial insights into the implications of automated journalism for market efficiency.     

The four spikes

The unintended impacts of human appropriation of the planet's resources have become so numerous, voluminous, and entangled in feedback loops that they often overwhelm the capacities of decisionmakers to cope with current crises, much less prepare for a sustainable future. The difficulty may be alleviated by viewing global change from a broader perspective than is normally offered either by specialists (whose views are necessarily narrow) or by mainstream media (whose interests are usually fragmentary and parochial). From this broader perspective, it can be seen that four “megaphenomena” began sweeping the planet in the past century. Graphed on a time-line of millennia rather than years or days, they appear as four enormous “spikes” — of human population, materials/energy consumption, carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, and extinctions of species. These megaphenomena account for the proliferation of afflictions swamping humanity at the outset of the 21st century. Understanding the nature of the spikes may offer the most viable means of managing — by attacking the roots — of what could otherwise escalate into an increasingly disastrous cascade of impacts.     

Bibliometric assessment of research performance in Flanders: policy background and implications

We illustrate the use of bibliometric tools in the evaluation of scientific research conducted at Flemish universities and publicly funded research organisations, and in the assessment of scientific-technological performance in Flanders in the field of information technology. We sketch the policy background of a number of studies conducted during the past 6 years in Flanders. These studies have provided useful information to evaluators and policy makers in Flanders, and have generated indirect effects on policy decisions, as their outcomes were used in the policy debate to raise relevant questions, clarify concepts or distinctions, question assumptions or to substantiate impressions.     

Hill Valley University

Hill Valley University is faced with a number of issues in the current year, including a $12 million deficit. You, CPA, are asked to analyze a number of strategic and operational issues to help the Board make important decisions regarding various program growth and cost savings opportunities. You also are asked to assess the impact of various initiatives on the university's strategic plan and its students. Some issues, such as recruiting more international students and increasing class size, may affect the student learning experience. Other issues, such as the building of a new residence and the implementation of a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, may help the university increase its ranking. You, CPA, are also asked to incorporate your recommendations into a five‐year budget.     

Crop Price Indemnified Loans for Farmers: A Pilot Experiment in Rural Ghana

Farmers face a particular set of risks that complicate the decision to borrow. We use a randomized experiment to investigate (1) the role of crop‐price risk in reducing demand for credit among farmers and (2) how risk mitigation changes farmers’ investment decisions. In Ghana, we offer farmers loans with an indemnity component that forgives 50 percent of the loan if crop prices drop below a threshold price. A control group is offered a standard loan product at the same interest rate. Loan uptake is high among all farmers and the indemnity component has little impact on uptake or other outcomes of interest.     

The effects of memory set accessibility and relevance on the use of memory information during product choice

The Accessibility-Relevance framework provides a useful perspective to consider the retrieval and use of memory information during product decision making (Alba, Lynch, and Hutchinson, 1990; Lynch, Marmorstein, and Weigold, 1989). However, it considers accessibility on an individual brand basis, while actual product choice often includes information across multiple alternatives. Thus, memory set accessibility (MSA), the relative accessibility across memory brands, is introduced as a potentially important but unexplored issue within the Accessibility-Relevance research stream. This study 1) provides an explanation for how MSA may produce results which significantly expand the current Accessibility-Relevance conceptualization and 2) considers the effects of MSA and relevance on both brand processing and choice.